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I Did It! S96j

post #1 of 16
6/21/06 at 1:53pm
Thread Starter 
I DID IT! I ordered the Bare Bones, Processor (1.83ghz), Wi-Fi and Optical Drive (DVD-RW) from Mwave I'm going to put them together myself. My stomach is flipping. It's a big investment for me right now, and I hope I get enough use out of it to be worth it. I have a good desktop at home. I guess I'm going to have to find some excuses to travel. Heh.

I'm going to pick up memory, probably from Newegg. They have
G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) on sale today for 74.99 with free shipping, and I'm still looking for the HD, deciding what to get...

My total price will probably be around 1100. I'm excited

I really really hate paying that much for a processor. I'm use to buying AMD. AMD has excellent processors for a lot better prices, but I just couldn't find a good AMD laptop with these specs, right now. Hopefully I won't regret getting this when the AMD dual cores come out.

Wish me luck It looks fairly easy to put together. Hopefully it'll come with everything I need. I wonder if all the screws will be there...

Krista
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post #2 of 16
6/21/06 at 2:25pm
Good like and nice set-up!

Yeah Intel CPU prices are killer, sucks, AMD are cheaper, only if they had a good Turion X2 barebones.......*sigh*


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post #3 of 16
6/21/06 at 6:41pm
Thread Starter 
Someone said, in another thread, that you need thermal grease for the GPU??

Isn't it integrated into the MB? Does it have its own heat sink or something? Do I need to buy some arctic silver?



Krista
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post #4 of 16
6/21/06 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krista
Someone said, in another thread, that you need thermal grease for the GPU??

Isn't it integrated into the MB? Does it have its own heat sink or something? Do I need to buy some arctic silver?



Krista

Im not sure on that, I dont think so really if your not planning on overclocking it.

But im not sure...
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post #5 of 16
6/21/06 at 9:24pm
Thread Starter 
Well my total came to 1124.36, including shipping.

I think I saved at least 100 over any site that would build it for me, but... of course, I will have interesting warranty issues, and I'm putting it together myself. Perhaps it's worth it to pay for the support, but I enjoy building computers, and this will be my first laptop build (though I know it's not entirely from scratch), and I'll enjoy it

I did end up getting the 100 gig hitachi 5400 drive. I really debated between that and the 80 gig 7200 but that was about $30 more, and of course 20 gig less... I wasn't sure the speed was worth it. And, of course, if I decide to upgrade in future, the drives will be cheaper yet.

Thanks to everyone for answering all of my questions. I might have more as I put my new speed demon together.

Krista
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post #6 of 16
6/21/06 at 10:13pm
First of all, Core Duo is totally unlike the Pentium 4 and, clock for clock, well outperforms even the AMD X2.....so paying X2 prices for it wasn't painful for me.

And, yes, the GPU is embedded in the mainboard but it is cooled by the same large flat heatsink that cools the CPU. There were no instructions concerning it, but I took it for granted that anytime a processor makes contact with a heatsink, it needs some kind of thermal interface material.

I think you made a good choice on the drive too. You'd have a tough time arguing that there is a better notebook hard drive manufacturer than Hitachi right now. Maybe something with NCQ would be better for a server, but, come on, we won't be issuing 20 simultaneous requests on the drive. My philosphy is, get 100GB......just decide if the cost is worth it to jump from 5400 to 7200. A 60GB 7200 is going to be more expensive, louder, hotter, and perform roughly on par, so why not get the extra storage. If you'll only be gaming, then the 7200 might give you some better level-loading performance. But these baby's have a 720p resolution which means they yearn to knock your socks off with some HD content and that HD content, should you download it some day will take up tons of storage and you might be glad for that extra space. Whatever.

Congrats and post your impressions once it's all together. And one last thing. You're getting a hell of a notebook for that money. I actually decided to part out my desktop and sell it after getting this. I had a dual core opteron cooled with an XP-90 plus 2GB 2-2-2-5 memory and a 7800GT. I don't feel I took a step down in any regard and the desktop paid for the notebook and then some. Of course becnhmarks are going to be lower for the most part, the actual performance I 'feel' is practically identical.
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post #7 of 16
6/21/06 at 10:24pm
Wow, nice going Krista!

im interested in getting this asus as well, and if everything goes well for you, i might do the same thing and put the laptop together myself.

at least that way i can afford it hehe.

enjoy your new beast!
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post #8 of 16
6/22/06 at 4:27pm
Thread Starter 
If anyone can give me instructions on how put put the arctic silver on for the heat sink, I'd appreciate it. I assume it just needs a thin layer on the heat sink, where it touches the GPU, but... I'm not sure the GPU will have a nice flat surface that puts off heat like the processor would.

I'm also going to post in the peer-to-peer support section.

Krista
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post #9 of 16
6/22/06 at 4:52pm
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_s...structions.htm


AS5 applying instructions.

Should be more on google

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...silver&spell=1
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post #10 of 16
6/22/06 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by usapatriot

Yeah I had found the instructions for a CPU but not for a GPU that's attached to the MB like I'm assuming this one is. I'm not sure where the 'core' is on a GPU

I guess I'll order some arctic silver, in case I need it. I might get it by Tuesday...

Krista
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post #11 of 16
6/22/06 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Krista
Yeah I had found the instructions for a CPU but not for a GPU that's attached to the MB like I'm assuming this one is. I'm not sure where the 'core' is on a GPU

I guess I'll order some arctic silver, in case I need it. I might get it by Tuesday...

Krista

I ordered the artic silver, and a product they make to clean off thermal goop / pads. So I think I'll give it a try. I hear coffee filters make good lint free towels for that sort of thing.

Still not exactly certain about the gpu but I suspect once I see it it'll make more sense...

Krista
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post #12 of 16
6/22/06 at 7:42pm
It's the same deal. The GPU is attached, but you can plainly see it and how the heatsink will make contact with it. Do it the same as you would a CPU.
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post #13 of 16
6/22/06 at 7:43pm
You don't need any cleaning product either. 91° rubbing alcohol does beautifully.
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post #14 of 16
6/23/06 at 2:00am
Wow the price on Mwave is great! 1.83Ghz, 2GB corsair ram, 80GB HDD. $1200~
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post #15 of 16
6/23/06 at 10:07am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsr5
Wow the price on Mwave is great! 1.83Ghz, 2GB corsair ram, 80GB HDD. $1200~

Yep, though I didn't pay for them to assemble, and got my memory and HD elsewhere (1 gig memory for now and 100G HD) for about 1124.

Krista
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post #16 of 16
6/23/06 at 10:10am
Thread Starter 
Well, I have some concerns now about voiding the intel / ASUS warranty, since I won't have a reseller, necessarily, who will handle it since I'm putting it together myself, and I've heard the stock cooling is very good, so I don't think I'll initially apply the arctic silver.

Both the CPU and GPU come with thermal paste, and the GPUs memory has thermal pads too so it should be okay.

If I feel it's running a bit too warm, I might clean it all off and apply the AS 5 after that.

Krista
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